Changes
by A.S. Hitch
Summary: [A Post-Book Outsiders One-Shot] When you're a greaser, living on the back side of life, and loving every minute of it, you want to be forever young. You always want to be wild, reckless and crazy...But you know what? Growing up wasn't so bad. Just as long as there's something to look forward to at the end of the road. [Johnny and Dally are alive in this, contains OCs, no slash]


**Changes, a Post-Book Outsiders One-Shot**

_Written by A. S. Hitch_

* * *

When you're a greaser, living on the back side of life, and loving every minute of it, you want to be forever young. You always want to be wild, reckless and crazy. You always want to laugh everything off with your friends, yet stick together in times of need. You always want to just live life to its absolute fullest. You're invincible.

To many people, including Johnny Cade, that's what it meant to be a greaser.

Johnny knew what it meant to live on the wrong side of the tracks. He was by no means rich or middle class, not even close. His house resembled a shack. No, scratch that, his house was worse than a shack. Paint constantly peeled off the sides of the frame, the roof wasn't in better shape. The floor creaked every time he walked on it and the hinges of the door looked like they were about to come right off. And on top of that, his family wasn't much better. Heck, the gang resembled more of his family than his actual parents did. His mother paid him no mind what so ever. He would wake up, bloodied and bruised on the floor and she would just walk right by, like he was a pile of dirty laundry. His father, when sober, did the same thing. Except when he was drunk. When Johnny's dad was drunk, he would beat him bad and holler at him, too. Due to growing up in the hood, Johnny could take a whipping from his old man any day, but that didn't make things feel better. Most people would've grown cold and bitter, like Dallas Winston, but not Johnny. Johnny had this sensitive side to him. That side of him made him understand that things aren't always so bad.

Like those times when he hung out with the gang. Those were good days. Those were the times where they would all just go out and play football or stay at the Curtis' home and roll out a game of poker without a care in the world. Two-Bit would constantly dish out wisecracks in his drunken state while Dally growled in attempt to shut him up. Steve and Soda would try and tag-team everyone out of the game, mostly by cheating (Johnny swore the only people who played honestly in a poker game were him, Ponyboy, and Darry, on the occasions when he would have the time to play). Everyone would share laughs and cancer sticks, blasting the radio until the wee hours of dawn. By then, every one would've fallen asleep in some haphazard manner around the living room, completely dead to the world. Those were the good times, the times when they were all stupid and young.

And then, that day came. The day Ponyboy, Dally, and Johnny met at the corner of Pickett and Sutton. It was supposed to be just a harmless day of hanging out. It was supposed to end with the movie before heading back home for the night. But no. Something had to happen that very night.

Even to this day, Johnny couldn't tell you what had started it. Maybe it was the fact that he and Ponyboy picked up Cherry and Marcia. Or was it their boyfriend's fault for being rip-roaring drunk in the first place and leaving them there? Even so, the duo hadn't expected the night to end in murder. The murder of Bob Sheldon, the Soc. They hadn't expected to be on the run, heading on the freight to Windrixville, where they would spend the rest of the week there, surviving on baloney and playing poker and reading _Gone With the Wind_. Then, have that week to end with the decision of turning themselves in and the incident at the Church, resulting Johnny's back to nearly be broken, Dally's arm being burned, permanently scarred, and Ponyboy's sudden illness.

Life had been stressful when they returned home, but they all pulled through. The worry of Ponyboy and Sodapop being taken by the state came and went, both Ponyboy's and Johnny's recovery had been successful and without any faults. They even managed to win in the rumble before all that! And with Ponyboy finally making the grades and managing to snatch a scholarship to some out of state university (Yale, wasn't it?), things were beginning to look up.

Darry and Ponyboy's relationship had been patched up in a matter of days, though they still fought occasionally, but not as bad as before. It was the same thing for Steve and Ponyboy. Johnny noticed that there was less hatred between them. Two-Bit was still the wisecracker, but lately, he didn't seem to touch a single drop of alcohol, which was a big shock to them all. Sodapop was just as cheery as ever and even more after he finally got over Sandy. Dally seemed less hateful towards everything, but he wouldn't let anyone say anything about that (he was still one of the stronger one, next to Darry, after all). And Johnny, himself? Johnny began to speak and laugh more, which was a drastic change from his past jumpy self. Boy, it was a good feeling in the world to finally not have to walk through the streets with a switch blade in your back pocket.

But the scary thing was realizing that they were all growing up. And when the years came tumbling towards them, all of them had matured from being rowdy greasers into married men. Ponyboy was the first to sort of "break" from their old lifestyle, but it wasn't THAT surprising (he was the only one, next to Darry, who could actually go somewhere in life). He had managed to graduate from college, majoring in English and earned himself a teaching position. Plus, surprised everyone by the fact he had been dating a girl for two years and planned on getting married. Her name was Claire. She was a sweet girl, strawberry blond, and petite. She was smart just like Ponyboy and clicked with him like two puzzle pieces. Claire kept his head out of the clouds on the days he didn't use his head and supported him throughout their college years. Last time Johnny heard, they were about to have their second child.

News of Ponyboy's relationship set off some sort of chain reaction within the gang, starting with Sodapop.

He met Caroline around the same time of Ponyboy's and Claire's wedding. Caroline had been a long-time friend of Claire's, and being Pony's brother, they had run into each other before the actual ceremony. The two hit it off right away, both freaking out by the fact someone close to them was getting married. They were disheartened to have to halt their conversation when the wedding began. But, of course, Sodapop being Sodapop, he could hardly sit still through the ceremony, and ended up sending slightly exaggerated signals of a conversation to Caroline as the priest spoke, making her giggle. This didn't go unnoticed by Pony, and the said person nearly kicked Soda in the shin for bouncing around too much in his spot. Sodapop and Caroline, after a few lunch meet-ups and obvious flirts, became an item within the year. In fact, if Johnny could remember correctly, Sodapop had proposed a month ago and Caroline had said yes. He could also recall Two-Bit throwing a fit about how everyone was getting 'all the nice girls.'

Ironically, Two-Bit was the third one to get hitched. One moment, Two-Bit was hanging out with Steve and the next he was standing at the altar, like Ponyboy had been, with a girl named Tai Jah. Dally only snorted at that. _Leave it to Two-Bit to claim the most exotic girls, _he said. When Two-Bit met Tai Jah, Dally met Rylee, the girl who actually managed to tame the wild Dallas Winston. And when Dally ("miraculously") married Rylee, Steve met Natalie just as Darry met Wendy. Just a year later, Two-Bit had caught Johnny out with a girl named Allysa. Though the latter definitely didn't want some big celebration, the gang, plus their families, had thrown one anyways.

Now, years later, the old gang sat in the same Curtis' home (which was now owned by Ponyboy's son, Daniel), lounging around and laughing, like all those years ago.

"Sheesh, what happened to us? We're all old now!" Two-Bit cackled as he gave Ponyboy a playful shove on the shoulder and nearly made him spill the drink in his hands, but the latter just laughed like everyone else in the room and rolled his eyes.

"Naw, Two-Bit," Sodapop spoke up, shaking his head. "Not old. Just… not young anymore."

"Shoot," added Steve good-naturedly. "Way to state the obvious, Soda."

"It's true!" Ponyboy piped up in his brother's defense. "Admit it, Steve. We all were young and stupid once."

"You _were _young, yes," Darry added as he entered the room with his youngest daughter trailing behind him at his heels. "But you all are still stupid, and will be for the rest of your life." Various protest ensued even though it was a true statement.

"We all wanted to be forever young, huh?" Ponyboy mused to himself, but Johnny caught it and chuckled.

"It's only human, Pony. We were greasers. It was us against the world." Just as Steve, Soda, Two-Bit, and Dally instigated a card game, a smile crept up to Johnny's face. "But I liked how it turned out in the end. We may not be young forever, but we got a whole 'nother life ahead of us."

"Amen to that." And the two friends brought their glasses together for a toast.

When you're a greaser, living on the back side of life, and loving every minute of it, you want to be forever young. You always want to be wild, reckless and crazy. You always want to laugh everything off with your friends, yet stick together in times of need. You always want to just live life to its absolute fullest. You're invincible.

But you know what? Growing up wasn't so bad. Just as long as there's something to look forward to at the end of the road.

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**A/N: **_So I wrote this yesterday around midnight/one in the morning and posted it on my Tumblr Page, and thought, what the heck, why not post it here? Keep in mind that I did write this AROUND THE WEE HOURS OF THE DAY, so it maybe a bit choppy/crappy. But over all, I'm proud of it._

_On a note to my fanfic, "The Dixon Girls" no, I have not given up on it what so ever. I'm just indecisive about what to post next. I can't decide whether to switch POV again to an actual canon character, keep it in Lollipop's perspective, or switch back to Melanie's. Since I feel sort of bad that I'm promoting my own story on an author's note like this, I'll stop there. But to sum it all up, I AM MOST DEFINITELY NOT GIVING UP ON IT, I PROMISE._

_So, finally, here are some disclaimers._

_The Outsiders (c) S. E. Hinton_

_Over all plot of this one shot (c) A. S. Hitch_

_OCs/Names of the girls (c) the Awesome people on Tumblr that let me use them c:_

_Well, that's all~ See ya later~_

_-A. S. Hitch_


End file.
